Partridge Iciclebubbles wrote:Mistletooth wrote:It's very unlikely that there's enough time left to withdraw Article 50 (whatever form withdrawal looks like) and it definitely wouldn't be so simple as to simply "cancel" it in March 2019 due to a lack of support for a deal in Parliament. Anyone hoping for that is probably setting themselves up for a massive disappointment. The majority of MPs do not want a hard Brexit and do want to stay within the single market, so today's vote coupled with the language of the agreement last week should mark the complete death of a hard or no deal Brexit. That's really probably the best anyone could sensibly hope for.
I agree it won’t be, but it’d be very quick and simple to withdrawal Article 50. The government would just write a letter saying it’s been withdrawn.
There are no rules and no legislation in place that stop a country withdrawing Article 50.
If the EU wanted to force us out (and I’m not convinced they would) then they’d lose in court.But, it’s not going to happen unless there is a major shift in attitude from the government, a decent sized proportion of Leavers and the media. So yeah, not going to happen.
This is I think the crucial point though. The Brexit process has absolutely wrecked the UK's standing in Europe, unnecessarily so! The EU would probably like to see the back of a country that has historically been quite obstructive to its aims right now, and I don't think it's going to be such a surefire victory if revoking Article 50 ended up at the European Court of Justice.
Withdrawing it also requires a political sea-change or even a series of sea-changes in a very short amount of time. It needs this government to fall and a general election to be called, which isn't inevitable despite its current state, and the next government winning on a platform of promising a new referendum or outright cancellation of the Brexit process. The Tories can't offer that and Labour won't offer that despite the apparent beginnings of a change of heart in its leadership.
This shitty compromise of a Brexit is probably the best we can hope for.
EDIT - The National is on a bit of a roll with its recent front pages.